Boris may give Norris top job

Today's FT speculates that Steve Norris may become Boris Johnson's nominee to run the London Development Agency if the Tory candidate becomes Mayor next Thursday.

"Mr Norris, who fought unsuccessfully to become mayor in 2000 and 2004, said he had been given “no promises” about a job. However, he has been in close touch with Mr Johnson and would be keen to run the London Development Agency, which is responsible for driving economic growth in the capital. The agency needed a shake-up, he suggested in an interview with the Financial Times. “It is the most dysfunctional body that most of us can think of.”

Also in his interview with the FT, Mr Norris affirmed Mr Johnson's 'doughnut' strategy of targeting Tory votes in the outer suburbs. He also said that Met Chief Sir Ian Blair should resign if Boris Johnson won because he would have lost the support of Londoners.

Comments

Steve Norris although sometimes a controversial politician has a razor sharp mind and is a class act in leadership skills and knows the London political scene intimately well. I hope Boris will give Steve such a key job and surround himself with high calibre London experts from the ranks of Borough Leaders and others which will be a welcome break from the Red Ken habit of appointing 80's lefty cronies who were appointed on ideological grounds as trusted yes men rather than sheer competence

This would be an excellent appointment. Steve Norris knows about government and has great organisation experience. The London Development Agency needs sorting out and Steve is the man to do it. He would be a heavyweight addition to Boris's team.

This is Norris's reward for advising Boris on policy. He has filled the policy and business vacuum in Team Boris. The Shadow cabinet has provided little substance as basis for London policies.

Steve has had the patience of a saint as Boris often fails to prepare for their meetings and his attention span is limited. CCHQ recognises it needs a whole team of people like Steve to run the City. Boris will be just a PR front man.

This job means that Steve can stay on at Jarvis and keep his transport consulting interests. He would have had to give up both to run TfL. The big question is who will run TfL.

Not that I expect Mr Norris reads ConservativeHome (He doesn't strike me as the sort I'm afraid) but I will warn him of trying to politicise the police force. However Ian Bair may have been perceived to have acted; whether politically himself, I am disgusted at the thought of the incoming Mayoral party trying to oust the Met Police Commissioner- it is unpalatable that they should try to interfere.

Mr Norris would be well fitted for the post. I have never understood how the incumbent Manny Lewis went from head of personnel at the backwater of Thurrock to communications adviser to Ken to chair of LDA all in 5 years

Only time I never voted for a Tory candidate was when Norris stood for Mayor. He is very attached to his Jarvis, which is nothing to be proud of. Stay there, don't come here. Yes Livingstone's team needs a bootout, but to vote this in as a replacement. No *)()**) way. He is not committed to London at all, but to his own personal wealth and needs. Is Jarvis promoting him for this position to try and turn around their share price by getting new London contracts? It's a question, not a statement, but the one activity Jarvis seem good at is refinancing, not so good at delivering defect-free services if the Press is to be believed.
No , no, no. If this is true, I believe Boris to have been very ill-advised. Do we want apologies for "the hurt and anger our actions in responding caused." if something goes wrong in London? No, I would prefer not to appoint people who have strong links to organizations who caused them in the first place.
Ian Blair to toddle off. Excellent idea, I have never seen an individual so lax in applying rules of evidence before shooting off his gob. "But West Midlands Police said Sir Ian did not know the full circumstances surrounding the arrest." And they are not alone in commenting on the lazy and slipshod manner in which this individual approaches his duties.

This is the man who was adopted in Epping Forest by traditional Conservative members on the basis that (1) he was happily married (2) would live in the constituency and (3) supported Margaret Thatcher. I know - I was there.

As a matter of record, at the relevant times, he did not sleep either with his wife (a charming and blameless lady) or in the Constituency. he voted against Margaret when the chips were down.

He is a Europhile if that's what it takes to get power. For a man who likes the press to believe he is so wealthy, as a result of his second hand car dealerships, that he does not have to work, he seems amazingly keen to procure a state funded position and the pension which no doubt goes with it.

On this evidence, at least, one has to doubt the wisdom of putting him up as a minder for Boris. They may share the same values of infidelity but I doubt either of them have any other significant values excepting for power for themselves.

I'm sorry but a small number of these posts are simply dripping with poison.

"Andrew Smith" is an unwelcome reminder that an unfavoured minority of our members live on a different planet to London. What sad and pathetic comments. Get a life instead of obsessing about someone else's.

The party would be very lucky indeed to be able to call on the services of Steve Norris, the only Tory to have actually run London Transport, and the person responsible for the biggest extension of the system to date. He brings huge intelligence and great political and interpersonal skills to the table and would have made an outstanding Mayor, never mind the fact that he would do an outstanding job as Chair of the LDA.

Not that it is of any importance at all regarding any of the above, but it is hardly some kind of blinkered "Europhile" who opposes the euro. And let's not forget that Steve carried this party's banner, when its leadership was living in the political dark ages. Look at all the flack he got from Tories for saying things that David Cameron has now made party policy. Look at the flack he got for standing up for decent, civilised principles which the Conservative Party had turned its back on.

He wasn't afraid to take on Ken Livingstone and he wasn't afraid to stand up for his principles. Courage and competence are exactly what an out-of-control, lost and drifting entity like the London Development Agency needs. Perhaps it could be turned into something akin to its original purpose rather than having to cower in the face of bullying and bribes from City Hall.

"Courage and competence are exactly what an out-of-control, lost and drifting entity like the London Development Agency needs." No problem with that statement at all.
Can you show me/educate me how Steven Norris has exercised these admirable qualities at Jarvis as its Executive Chairman? I fail to see it nor can I find a ringing endorsement as to his business acumen or potential for success. It is true that these are sometimes matters of timing and luck, but 5 years is I think a sufficient timescale in which to prove or disprove the concept that Steven Norris possesses these qualities in sufficient quantity to usher him into the LDA without further question.

When I was campaigning with Mr Norris I found him to be affable and charming.

Personally, I think he did a good job with London Underground, and as it happens, tubelines, of whom Jarvis was one of the consortium, has an excellent record in maintainance and project delivery. It is interesting that the newt slags off the PPP partners when they are late, but happily takes credit for the early refurb of stations (Tubelines), the delivery of new signalling (Tubelines), the delivery of longer trains (Tubelines) without a mention of them.

It is easy to slime people for their outside interests, I note the sniping about 2nd hand car salesmen in particular, but surely being a self made millionaire is better than having trousered it from the public purse? aka almost every Socialist?

I ask again: Why is there this insistence that the man who is the Executive Chairman of a company that has lost money for the last two years, dropped its shareprice alarmingly last November , paid no dividend for God know how many, is the shining light to lead forth the LDA or Tfl out of their darknesses? Where is the recent record of success that gives people confidence that this is the saviour? I am sorry, I just don't see it. If anybody could enlighten me, I would be most grateful and I shall try to brush up my research skills. You may ask why I harp on. My reasons are this (1) One factor in shaking the Livingstone edifice is the perception that his administration bends the rules at least and maybe worse. It is unfortunate for Mr Norris, but his links to Jarvis, ( and Intheknow's comment "This job means that Steve can stay on at Jarvis and keep his transport consulting interests. He would have had to give up both to run TfL. The big question is who will run TfL.") can ( I say can) be interpreted as "hoho, business as usual in Tammany Hall" (2) Where is the success that says this risk is worth taking? Believe me, if you don't produce it and produce it loudly, there will be much mudslinging, confusion and water-stirring so that people spend their time dealing with that rather than the job in hand, so no matter how competent anybody is you are starting with an unnecessary handicap. (3) One mistake, either operationally or worse financially (where did that munny come/go from/to then?) ) and the Tories will be crucified and it won't do the Party's chances of success at the next election any good at all.

I remember Andrew Smith, who now, I know, stands as a UKIP candidate.
Steve Norris is not a Europhile - very far from it.
An earlier commentator referred to the poison of this comment, and sadly that poison infected a vociferous minority from Epping Forest at the time of Steve's selection as Mayoral candidate. Suffice to say that a huge number of people in Epping Forest remember Steve as a first class Member of Parliament, who did indeed live in the constituency, as did his family, until the break up of his first marriage. Many people there say they'd like him back as their MP again.
The jibes about second hand car salesman are very old hat. He left that business nearly twenty years ago, and whatever money he has now has been made in a successful business career since he stood down from Parliament in 1997.
He was a highly successful and popular Transport Minister largely because he has the knack of inspiring the best in people. He would do a great job for Boris.

Well, green ink may be vastly preferable to the red ink on Jarvis accounts. If that's all there is, then I take it that a unquestioning view of the world as people want to see it rather than how it is now will lead us into unnecessarily tricky waters guided by an American dictionary/spell-checker.

It's not the topic of this thread but Steve Norris turned Jarvis around. If Boris can win, he is going to need his expert knowledge of London, as he is in other areas, that of people like Ray Lewis, Richard Barnes and others. Being a successful Mayor is above all about delivering change for the better, improving the infrastructure and institutions that are there and creating more where they are needed when they can be afforded. Norris delivered the Jubilee Line Extension when he was minister for transport in London. We should all expect more of the same good work from him and all the other people who have delivered for London in the past but who haven't been part of the Livingstone regime.

JLE : All I can find is much moaning about overruns of cost (65% over cost) and two years late - completed in the time of a Labour Administration. You wish to hold this up as a record of success. Only thing going for that is that the Olympic bid, as revealed by Ken last night, is an even bigger cost-climber and we sincerely have to hope that it comes in on time. Obviously there are definitions of success in relation to costs and delivery-times that I am not aware of, perhaps when one looks at the Wembley Stadium fiasco, JLE is a success. If Jarvis is a turned-around company, which people claim it was in 2006,(and I agree it was) it certainly seems to have turned around again in Nov 2007 losing 75% of its value in almost one day because Jarvis Management couldn't understand the "opaque nature" of its contracts with Network Rail ( we didn't read them properly). Again a new definition of success that I am unfamiliar with. I wish you the best of luck and a good flak-jacket if delivery does not match aspirations.